Nye spillere!

At practice on Tuesday my coach informed me that I am Brumunddal's international soccer star, haha. Don't worry (they are not that colluded)--he was just joking with me and only wanted to take a picture of me and another new girl on the team so that he could post it on the team's website. The picture is of me and Sunniva, a really sweet girl that used to play for Stange and is new to Brumunddal this season as well.

Tonight I am thinking of attempting to arrive to practice via bus. It is a 15-20 minute drive so I am expecting a 45 min to an hour bus ride. Needless to say, I am not that excited about it but I also hate missing half of the trainings...so we'll see how it goes. :)

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Hotell Parkgata

My cousin Gitta and I grew up spending a lot of time together--playing capture the flag with our older brothers, going to pony, basketball and any other type of summer camp you can think of, talking about girlish crushes and preoccupations, trying to dress like twin sisters and so on and so forth. Right now, Gitta is living in Brussels as an au pair. She has been living there for a few months now, honing her French skills and having a bit of a post-graduation adventure. She found time to come and visit me in Norway this past week, and since it was so close to Thanksgiving we thought we would at least attempt to recreate the traditional feast that we remember so fondly from our childhoods.

The first night Gitta arrived I was scheduled to work. Since I am so new I thought it was a bit dangerous to ask for time off (plus I NEED the money) but also felt rude for being occupied her first night in town. Luckily Gitta and I had a lot of fun at work, making Spanish meatballs and catching up with each other. The next day we woke up to see a bit of Hamar, but we also were on a mission--it was the day of the feast (sure, it was a week early, but we did what we had to do). We made a fairly accurate Thanksgiving meal: mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, fruit salad, rolls, and of course turkey...we even had a wannabe sparkling cider to really bring us back to the days of our youth! Gitta and I were both really nervous about ruining this sacred holiday, but we pulled it off and exceeded our own expectations. I invited Martin over to enjoy it with us, and I think he might have actually been the best at articulating what he was thankful for--you would have thought it was one of us Americans, but Martin came to compete! We rewarded him with an extra slice of warm apple pie to take home with him.

The next days, Gitta and I took it fairly easy, mainly just exploring and enjoying each others' company. We planned a trip to Oslo and hopped on the train Saturday morning. We got to know the city a bit by foot, but Norwegian weather was a bit extreme so we didn't get to see as much as would have liked. I am glad that we made it there at all, because who knows when we will be in Europe again together?! We were lucky enough to enjoy a great sunny day in the capital, and had a great view of the marina when the sun was going down. Gitta told me that of all the cities she has been to so far, Oslo and Amsterdam are her favorites, and it is easy to understand why Oslo makes the top of her list.

That night we stayed with Ibbe, a friend of mine from PLU who is now living in Lillestrøm, a suburb of Oslo. He is a really interesting guy--born in Iraq to Palestinian and Lebanese parents, moved to Sweden when he was 5 and has been living in the US and going to PLU for the past 3 years. I hired him to work the front desk in Kreidler and had become good friends with him this past year. He has just one semester left at PLU to get his degree but didn't get reissued his student visa. It was great to see him. All of my memories that include Ibbe also include great conversation and this visit was no exception. A friend of his stopped by and the four of us talked late into the night.

Gitta left on a express train to the airport at 5:15 am. I made my way back to Hamar that day and was completely exhausted. Traveling and debating really takes it out of you! But Hotell Parkgata wasn't closed just yet... Lars and I were having another visitor from the US! Jay Stevens, a guy I went to school with as early as preschool, had been studying all over Europe and Africa on this intriguing architecture program out of MSU. He has finished with classes and is now enjoying his time in Europe, back-packing around the place. He came into town Sunday night around midnight. When I was done with class on Monday, Jay and I explored Hamar a bit, walking out to the Domkirke. It was great to see another face from Indianola!

Hanging out with Jay really gave me photography fever. He has this awesome, really expensive camera. Most of our adventures were centered around trying to get some cool shots...I really like this one I took of him above (with his camera). I think the light and the texture combine really well in this composition. I saw Jay off on the train to Trondheim this morning...and I am sure that I will see him again soon since he left an entire bag of his stuff here to lighten his load. :)

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En god helg

Going inside the Viking Ship was awesome. It is an indoor ice skating arena that was built for the 1994 for the Olympic Games. The show we went to was called the Ice Festival and it introduced us to an interesting subculture that you would have never known existed in Hamar. Derby cars, motor bikes, go carts, bumping systems...it was pretty crazy.





There was an older man sitting next to me that was really giving me some good laughs. He was watching the show alone, but was enjoying it like he was there with some of his best old friends...laughing and smiling over at me and Lars (and anyone else that was close by).

It was a good experience to see something new and different, and yes, it was thrilling to see some of those fast cars and crazy stunts. But at the same time I know that both Lars and I were thinking that a lot of those guys were really off their rockers. They were driving around on ice at 110 mph IN A CIRCLE!?!? And seriously...there is a line that is crossed easily when a stereo is so loud that it hurts your ears and you can't tell what song is playing. Easily crossed.

On Sunday Lars and I went for a walk to check out the ruins of the old cathedral in Hamar. It was great to get out and get some fresh air and explore some parts of Hamar that I haven't seen yet. Even though it was pretty warm (above zero haha) the ground was pretty slippery and Lars and I had to tone down our speed walking a bit. ;) The lake was gorgeous, and it was nice to be walking with someone else instead of running alone!



The old church was impressive. Construction began in 1152 and the cathedral was completed in 1200. Lars told me that the Swedish destroyed the cathedral and it turns out he was right (that never happens) :). It was ruined in 1567 during the Seven Years War. Now, they have built this huge glass structure around the ruins to protect them from prying eyes and fingers, and most likely the elements. And who knows, maybe it is an attempt to thwart the Swedes if they get any more nasty ideas.

It was a nice day...Lars and I had a good time getting some exercise and checking out some sights. Sundays are really quiet around town. It is always nice to be able to take a day to be a tourist in your own city. Or in a city you have recently adopted... ;)

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Anne kom til Norge!

One of my best friends Anne came to Norway to visit a group of people including me and Lars. The original plan was to meet in Oslo and do some touristy stuff around the city since neither of us had done that and because it was a great central meeting place for everyone that was trying to make the reunion. Unfortunately my boss scheduled me to work during the day on Fri. and Sat. night. As I was in no place to ask for the time off, or to ask to switch shifts with someone else and I desperately needed the hours, Anne and I looked into alternative plans to spend time together. The only day that looked promising was Sunday, even though Anne and her boyfriend Pat were leaving to go back to Berlin that day. It would have been really expensive for me to make my way to Oslo for just a couple of hours, and it wasn't exactly cheap for Anne and Pat either to train back and forth either. We decided the best for all would be a train ride up for the two of them, and then a nice cozy car ride back to the airport with Lars as the chauffeur.

Man was it great to see Anne! We met them at the train station, went for a short walk, and then settled down in the apartment to chow down on some delicious nachos and watch one of Lars' favorite teams play in the Norwegian Cup Final (they won by the way!).

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B1

So I have moved up in the world. I am now in the highest level of Norwegian class that VO offers. I have a crazy, new teacher named Aud (crazy in a great way) . She is a couple years older than Liv and a couple measures more energetic. I learned right away that the class is WAY ahead of the classes I had been in before. I had just finished the lydkurs (sounds and alphabet) where we had focused on a couple letters a day, and also had picked up some simple phrases and a bit of small talk. We were finally moving on to our text book På Vei when Ivana lost her marbles and Liv gave us that test. So my current classmates have been in the country for years, and have been learning Norwegian for many months. I think some people have been taking class for a year or more. So, comparatively, my vocabulary is a joke and I sound like a bumbling idiot. Aud talks quite fast, but I understand most of what she is saying. It helps that she is really animated and the class is really involved in conversation. Oh, and the text book På Vei that we were just starting? They are done with that. Yep. Done. AND, they are halfway through the next book Stein på Stein! Oh boy.

So my initial reaction (besides oh shit) was bitterness and confusion. Is this really the right class for me? Can I afford to buy these new textbooks and is it the right decision? Mostly, I was really fixating on how quick money goes when you don't have an income, and what a shame it would be to spend another $115 on books when I hadn't even engaged the first one all that much.

And then I fell in love with my new teacher. At the end of class I asked if I could borrow the book she loaned me to use during class. She explained to me that she thought all students should have free books, regardless if they were 'paying' students or not. So she suggested that I could just turn in På Vei when I am finished with school and no one will ever know what happened. The school will not be losing money because the books have the same value! I thought it was a great idea, and thought it was the best suggestion I had heard for quite some time.

So I was so grateful to her, and felt welcome in the class right away. It is a pretty jolly group. I sit next to a guy from Burma who seems to be really smart but doesn't talk much. There are quite a few Serbians, a man and a woman from Iraq, a man from Somalia, a man from Burundi, a woman from Brasil and a woman from Romania. I think all together we are about 12 students. The room is also much more like a classroom--there are Norwegian phrases and newspapers on the walls, and actual desks--I am feeling much more challenged, and am actually excited to wake up in the morning to go to class.

So as much as I was in love with Aud on the first day, I was also in for a bit of a surprise. She announced that there would be a test the in two days! And then some of the students couldn't do it on that day because of some other commitment, and so the test was moved to the following day. So, day one: receive text book, day two: take a test on the first 6 chapters. Awesome. Aud told me not to worry about it.

Ok don't worry about it. Just a little test. On half the text book. After the initial shock I calmed down and decided that I would just take this test the same way that I took the test Liv gave us...with no expectations in my mind, with nothing to lose. I mean really, why not? What am I expected to know when I really haven't been taught much of anything? So I came the next day, and took the test. I knew that I failed it, and thought I might be lucky to have gotten half of it right. But then again, I was thinking, that's about how I felt after I took the other test as well...so let's just wait and see.

Turns out I did ok. They expect you to get 60% of the test right if you are in the right level and I got a 56%. I am not sure if I have ever gotten a 56% on a test, ...I don't remember. And if I have, I most certainly haven't been proud of it! But Aud was really impressed, so impressed in fact that she decided to announce my score to the whole class...apparently it was a fantastisk score. 'How long have you been in the Norwegian course?' she asked me. 'About a month?' Yep. About a month. My classmates also seemed to be impressed. I thought it was pretty strange the way she was making such a big deal out of it...maybe she was trying to boost my confidence I thought.

After class, I stayed to talk with Aud a bit about our schedule etc. And then it made sense why she thought my score was so great. She told me that I didn't have the lowest score in the class, that there were a few people beneath me. That was why she emphasized how long I have been in Norway. I think she was trying to light some fire under some of the other students' butts, if you know what I mean.

So I guess for now I am a B1 student. Aud and Liv both think it is the right place for me, and I think I will just go ahead and trust their judgement. At least then later if I do poorly I can just blame it on them instead of taking personal responsibilty. ;)

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